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Thursday, May 16, 2013

LatiLock - Latias EX reborn

Breaking barriers of the metagame

Hi everyone!

Who doesn’t love anti-metagame or rogue decks? Well, I don’t know about you,
but I always try to come up with something creative while play testing and
hoping that no one else will come up with it as well. Only once have I
succeeded in it, and that time around I was able to get to the top8 of the
World Championships.

However, today I’m not talking about the history, but the present. One of the
most interesting overlooked cards in Plasma Freeze is Latias EX. I have been
playing around with it for a few weeks now and after someone suggested on the
comments section, if I could do an entry about it, I thought, why not! It’s
something completely different and at the same time it’s very potential. Also,
if you have already received your invite for Worlds, or are just playing in
Battle Roads for fun, I highly suggest testing the concepts I am introducing in
this entry.

One small caveat before starting - I’m not yet completely happy with the lists
and results I have been getting with these deck, but I do see high potential in
them and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone was able to break the format later
on this season with a concept involving these cards. Anyways, let’s get going
by starting with the list of a real metagame counter deck!

In order to understand the strategy of the deck you
need to know what the cards do. Sigilyph has an Ability called Safeguard, which
prevents all the effects of attacks (including damage) done to it by your
opponent’s EX-Pokémon. And as you know, most of the main attackers in the
current format ARE Pokémon EXs thus meaning that most of the main attackers of
the current metagame can’t attack Sigilyph at all! The same goes with Latias
EX, although it can’t be attacked by Pokémon that have Abilities. A deck that
is invulnerable to attacks by Pokémon EXs AND by Pokémon that have Abilities –
sounds pretty awesome doesn’t it? It sure does, but it has its weaknesses as
well, which I’ll analyze later on.

The original problem I had with the deck was how to energy accelerate Sigilyph
as Sigilyph needs Psychic energy and Latias EX Psychic and Fire Energy.
Thankfully the answer was brought to me in a form of Victini EX; which can work
as the early game attacker and as the energy accelerator for the deck. Without
energy acceleration, this deck would have way too much trouble even with cards
like Eelektrik, but thankfully that isn’t the case anymore.

So, the strategy is fairly simple – force your opponent to take the prizes from
the cards they struggle the most against. This deck has a counter against every
metagame deck, so it’s a real headache when played correctly. However, if you
don’t know how the pilot the deck correctly against each match-up, you may end
up losing all the games 6-0.

In this entry, I’ll do something I usually don’t – I’ll walk you through the
match-ups of this deck in order to make you understand the weaknesses and
strengths of this deck against the most popular decks in the format. But first,
let’s take a look at the card choices.

Card Choices

Victini
EX – Victory Piece

The deck would have serious trouble without energy
acceleration. After all, both attackers of the deck hit with 3 energy. Victini
EX is a perfect solution for the energy acceleration dilemma. You only need one
of them into play, it can be very useful in the late game even without energy
thanks to Victory Piece and it has a perfect typing for the deck. It’s 2 easy
prizes for many decks, but I still think it’s worth the spot since you need the
energy acceleration and there is no better way to do it. The deck also has an
answer for not giving 2 prizes for the opponent from Victini EX, but I’ll get
back to it later on.

Latias EX and Sigilyph

Latias EX is the card that inspired me to create the deck even though the
deck is very similar to Quad Sigilyph. Latias EX neglects all the effects from
attacks from Pokémon that has an Ability. If we look at those cards in the
current format, we can find quite a many important cards with Ability. These include:

Quite an impressive list isn’t it? Every single metagame deck has a Pokémon and
usually more than one Pokémon with an Ability and using Latias EX at the right
times can get very frustrating for them. However, Latias EX wouldn’t alone
suffice since there are still a lot of attackers in the format (mostly
EX-Pokémon) that don’t have an Ability, but thankfully that’s why the deck has
Sigilyph.

As you probably know, you can’t touch Sigilyph with EX-Pokémon, much like you
can’t touch Latias EX with Pokémon that have an Ability on them. Popular EX-Pokémon
in the format include:

… Yeah, most main attackers in the current format are EX-Pokémon and that’s why
this deck may have a lot of potential. Sigilyph only requires 1 Psychic Energy
and 2 Colorless energy in order to attack, so Victini EX is able to energy
accelerate it very quickly. Not to mention that Sigilyph is a very good attacker
against non-EX cards like Eelektrik or Blastoise due to their high energy cost.

Professor Juniper – N

The two best Supporters in the format. There really isn’t any deck that
wouldn’t want to play 4 copies of these cards. What is worth mentioning, is N’s
importance in the late game to disrupt your opponent from getting the needed
Catcher to win the game, which is extra-important in this deck , where you keep
retreating and changing your attacker depending on the situation.

Skyla

Skyla is always good and since the deck runs Victory Piece, Skyla is a
MUST.

Cheren - Random Receiver

For a long time I was deciding between Bianca and Cheren, but as many cards
in this deck are situational, Cheren proved to be more useful than Bianca. You
want to use all the resources in the correct situations, so you don’t want to
waste them just get more cards with Bianca.

Ultra Ball- Pokémon Catcher

Nothing surprising here. Ultra Ball is the only card in the format that can
search for any Pokémon (as Pokémon Communication really isn’t an option in the
current decks with the low amount of Pokémon). Pokémon Catcher is Pokémon
Catcher – it wins you games.

Hypnotoxic Laser / Hammers

The deck needs disruption in order to handle the decks that have all the
answers needed for the deck. It all depends on whether you trust on your attack
power or just coin flipping skills. Hypnotoxic Laser can be occasionally very
good since it can add the needed damage as your opponent can’t retreat all the
time (they usually don’t have many Pokémon in play, which would be able to
attack your Pokémon), so Poison can add a lot of damage.

On the other hand, Hammers can keep your opponent from attacking. Of course
it’s a metagame choice as well. Hammers are better if your metagame is swarming
with Big basic decks and Plasma, but if your metagame is filled with Eelektrik
decks, Hypnotoxic Laser is the way to go.

Energy Switch - Skyarrow Bridge

Energy Switch and Skyarrow Bridge are both highly important since you don’t
have energy acceleration. With SKyarrow Bride you can not only counter your
opponent’s Stadiums, but also let your attackers retreat for free, which is
HUGE for you, because you need to keep your attackers moving and can’t really
afford discarding energy every time you retreat.

Super Scoop Up – Switch

Switch is only a tech here to get rid of special Conditions when necessary,
but SSU is the real deal. I would like to play 4 of them here, but due to the space
issues, it isn’t unfortunately possible. Super Scoop Up is here for two main
reasons:

1) Healing your damages Latias EXs
2) Getting the Victini EX out of the play BEFORE it gets KOed.

The 2nd reason is the reason, why I went with SSU and not with some
weird Potion tech. You can even sacrifice all of your SSUs just to get Victini
EX out of play, because if your opponent can’t take 2 prizes from it, they will
have VERY tough time ahead of them and will use their resources wisely in order
to get all the 6 prizes.

Recycle

Recycle is an interesting card that has been popping out of decks many times
during the seasons it has been legal, but it has never been a staple in any
deck. The reason for this is its flippyness, but in this deck it’s a very
crucial card since getting some cards back (e.g. Victory Piece) can turn the
whole game around.

When it comes to getting things back from the discard pile, Super Rod is one of
the cards I would like to fit in the list as well. Sometimes the 3 Sigilyph is
just not enough and getting them back with Recycle (especially energy) puts
your resources to the limit and isn’t as efficient as I would like them to be.

Energy

Even though 13 energy is a pretty high count in the
current format’s standards, it still sometimes isn’t enough. And the solution
isn’t adding more energy, but to find space for the Super Rod mentioned
earlier. Super Rod is the only card in the format than can answer the both
Pokémon trouble and possible energy drought of the deck.

Match-up walkthrough

What I will do here is to list all the important match
ups in the current format and see what answers this deck has against those
decks and what they can do against this deck.

Team PlasmaLatias EX counters

- Deoxys EX
- Lugia EX
- Snorlax

Sigilyph Counters

- Deoxys EX
- Lugia EX
- Thundurus EX

The only attacker(s) they can use against both of your Pokémon is/are:

- Kyurem

As you can see, the undisputed BDIF has some serious issues with this deck
unless they run heavy numbers of Kyurem (3 or more). Thundurus EX really isn’t
a strong attacker, so Latias EX alone can stop almost the whole deck. Kyurem
can’t OHKO Latias EX, which makes Latias EX even stronger against the Plasma
deck. Even though Plasma is the BDIF, this weird rogue really can give it a lot
of trouble. If you want to get the Plasma match-up even more favorable just
play Hammers instead of Lasers and you will be causing them a lot of headache.

Blastoise/Attackers

Latias EX counters

- Blastoise
- Keldeo EX

Sigilyph Counters

- Black Kyurem EX
- Keldeo EX
- Mewtwo EX

The only attacker(s) they can use against both of your Pokémon is/are:

- None!

Blastoise is one of the match ups that’s also very strong for the deck. The
only card that can hit your Pokémon in the match-up are Black Kyurem EX (if
they even play it!) and Blastoise (against Sigilyph). If they don’t run Black
Kyurem EX, you pretty much autowin the game. Granted, Mewtwo EX can hit Latias
EX, but Sigilyph gets a very easy revenge KO on Mewtwo EX if they try OHKOing
your Latias EX with it. And if they don’t.. Well, Sigilyph is still very strong
against it. In this match-up Lasers are obviously a lot better than Hammers
even though they have Keldeo EXs.

Darkrai EX/Absol

Latias EX counters

Darkrai EX

Sigilyph Counters

Darkrai EX

The only attacker(s) they can use against both of your Pokémon is/are:

- Absol
- Sableye

If people are still questiong whether or not to play Absol in Darkrai EX, this
gives the seal for it. This deck AUTOWINS Darkrai EX, if they don’t run Absol.
Their only attacker would be Sableye and you know what happens when Sableye
meets a Pokémon that hits for 70 damage, Sableye loses the game. However, with
Absol, things get a lot trickier. They have firepower combined to Lasers and
Virbank. You just have to keep your bench small and use your energy attachment
wisely. Absol has a resistance to Sigilyph, so Latias EX is your best bet here.
Especially since it OHKOS Sableye as well. I love playing this match-up,
because it’s extremely interesting and unlike in many match ups in the current
format, this is often decided by the players’ skill! (And with some coin flips
of course, lol).

Eelektrik/Rayquaza/EX

Latias EX counters

- Eelektrik

Sigilyph Counters

- Rayquaza EX

The only attacker(s) they can use against both of your Pokémon is/are:

- Rayquaza
- Emolga

The amount of the non-EX Rayquaza has been decreasing a lot lately, which gives
this deck an opening. Even though Latias EX is very good against Eelektrik, I
still suggest that you play the match-up with solo-Sigilyph and maybe sometimes
use Victini EX for the additional damage. Latias EX is a way easy target of 2
prizes for Rayquaza EX AND Rayquaza and 2 free prizes are something you can’t
really afford in the match-up. When it comes to Lasers vs. Hammers, the answer
is simple. Laser adds the needed 10 for you to OHKO an Eelektrik with Sigilyph,
which makes it the only correct play if you are bound to face a lot of this
match-up.

Plasma Klinklang

Latias EX counters

- Klinklangs
- (Darkrai EX /Keldeo EX)

Sigilyph Counters

- Any random EX

The only attacker(s) they can use against both (or one) of your Pokémon is/are:- Cobalion EX
- Cobalion

I think it’s pretty ironic that the deck’s worst match-up
is a deck that is designed against the most popular decks of the format as
well. Klinklang makes easily mincemeat of this deck unless you flip very well
from the Hypnotoxic Lasers and are able to inflict heavy damage with Victini EX
in the opening turns. Victini EX is surprisingly the key to your victory in
this game. You should start getting prizes from the Klinks and Klangs as long
as possible and once the Plasma Klinklang hits the play, it’s time to start
loading your Latias EX.

Sigilyph is pretty unnecessary here, because it doesn’t counter anything (as
Cobalion EX hits through its Ability) and Metal Pokémon have resistance to
Psychic. As the Klinklang lists vary a lot, I can’t really say, which is better
in this match-up – Laser or Hammers, but Laser is always a safe bet as you
can’t even 2HKO a Cobalion EX with your Latias EX. Also, remember that Latias
EX CAN hit Metal Pokémon even though Plasma Klinklang is in play, because it
hits through everything.

Conclusion

As I said previously, the concept of the deck is SUPER interesting. I mean, who
doesn’t sincerely love anti-decks like this? However, as I pointed out, it has
some serious weaknesses that need to be fixed before this can be a serious
surprise in the tournaments. Thankfully there is time for many Nationals (and
especially the U.S. Nationals), so I’m sure that Latias EX will be tweaked a
lot during the upcoming weeks by many players.

There is still one more day to vote for your favorite Design in The Deck Out-
playmat contest! Make sure to make your vote count and vote for your favorite
designs! Candidates can be found from my last blog entry. I’ll try to get the
winner design to be available early next week In the ProPokémon’s shop

What else? The Nationals WITH PLASMA FREEZE began last weekend and this week
and I’m sure many players will be keeping a close eye on Norwegian National,
which will be played in BW-Plasma Freeze format as well.

Anyways, back to on topic. Let me know what you thought about the deck and
article in general and do you have had any success with Latias EX and what kind
of combos do you see with it? I encourage everyone to make the most of
creativity in the next weeks, because Plasma Freeze offered us a bunch of new
cards that are keys for potential rogues.

48 comments:

The bad thing about this deck is that when your attacker is KO'd, especially early game, you're forced to bring out Victini and turbo energize, effectively wasting a turn. Also, tier 1 decks all have non-ex attackers. It just feels like something is missing to pull the deck together; maybe we'll see this with XY1.

I love this. You are the answer I've been looking for Esa! I was actually going to ask you about playing Latias EX before but hey! I guess being patient pays off haha :D Now I'm REALLY excited to play this (hopefully it doesn't go mainstream though haha #hipster). I'm definitely going to build this for Battle Roads WOO.

I guess now all I need to invest in is some Catchers and some Ultra Bawls :O

My question is about the Mirror Match. Does Latias EX counter Sigilyphs ability? What about Latias vs Latias? Eyy

Latias Ex would not be able to damage Sigi due to it being an EX. Sigi would not be able to damage Latias EX because it has an Ability. Latias EX would not be able to damage Latias EX because it has an ability.

Did consider using blend or prism energies and try to squeeze Mew EX (DRX) or Kecleon (PLF) in there? This could help cause even more disruption or mismatches for the opponent. You can't Turbo energize for them, but you can copy the defending pokemons attacks. Mew Ex lets you Replace energies, but now that I'm writing this it may not work. 2 low HP EX is too vulnerable to get behind in the prizes quickly.

You're math for Plasma was off, Kyurem can OHKO Latias easily. 3 Deoxys and a Hypno (or just 4 Deoxys) lets Kyurem OHKO Latias, and it'll pretty much burn through the rest of the deck. It OHKO's everything and they won't give you time to stabilize because the deck is so fast. You might get one Energize off before the Kyurem sweeps.

I also disagree with the Blastoise matchup, as despite that you wall their attackers, they can counter your counters easily enough. Blastoise can OHKO Sigi while you can't OHKO back, and BKEX OHKO's Latias. With this being the slower deck, they're going to be able to rotate between attackers fairly easily.

It's an interesting idea in a Darkrai filled metagame, but I can't see it working anywhere else. I enjoyed the article though, it's always nice to see some rogue ideas in this extremely centralized metagame. Keep up the good writing!

No, but the rules allow Kyurem to attack again if it is benched and then brought up again. This means with a switch and a float stone, both of which are common cards to run in a Plasma deck, one can attack again with Kyurem.

They are deciding on it now, But its just to decide if the energy gets discarded or nothing happens.either way no energy gets attached to sigilyph. "Prevent all effects of attacks, including damage, done to this Pokémon by Pokémon-EX."Effects include the attachment/movement of energy.

And lol for the Turbo Energize. I really don't know how I forgot it while playing the deck. However, all isn't gone due to it since it can be fixed with a few changes. First, just add 4th Energy Switch to the deck and you can very quickly get the Sigilyph accelerated . However, I must admit that I completely missed that ruling while doing the entry. Stupid Safeguard, rofl! Thanks for all the observant blog readers noticing this!

Kecleon may in fact be a good idea here now that I can't energy accelerate Sigilyph as I need something I can attach energy to if I don't want to lay down Latias EX.

Also, as noted above, Garbodor and Trubbish are OHKOed by Sigilyph, so they aren't a big issue.

When it comes to Mr. Mime, I really see potential in it. After they have run out of Catchers, their only way of damagind you will be hitting to the active spot and if you play Mr. Mime in the late game, it may very well win you games!

Safeguard actually doesn't block it. As a professor I'd say it wouldn't as its not an "effect" (burn,sleep,etc) but also you are able to use it on ptcgo which makes me that much more positive since both are old cards and if it was a glitch it would have been fixed by now. I'm actually taking this deck to nationals with a few tweaks.

You really understated the problems this deck has with Kyurem. It actually can OHKO Latias EX with just one Deoxys and Laser/Virbank. It runs through Sigilyph for days, and without an unreasonable amount of luck, can even DONK Victini EX.So there goes your Plasma matchup.

I also agree with what's been said about the Blastoise matchup. It seems like they could just switch between Blastoise and Black Kyurem EX all game, as you put no real pressure save T1 "Intensifying Burn."

I haven't played this exact list, so take my criticism with a grain of salt, but I don't think what I'm saying is unreasonable.And you have addressed that you realize the deck has some weaknesses. I'd suggest that you keep working on it, because as it stands, its weaknesses render it practically unplayable in this format and entirely outclassed by the stronger decks out there.

Yeah, Plasma is a very difficult match-up and yes this deck will never be a tier1 deck However, the point of this article was in the end be a tought-provoking article and show how stale and in the end easily-countered the current metagame is.

And in the end, I failed competely with the Victini EX/Sigilyph combo so... What I mean to say is that all of your points are correct and that the deck is only a fun deck that I suggest for only those who have enough CPs or want to play in the Battle Roads for fun.

Maybe I'm missing somehting. but Garbodor's ablity cancels all the other abilities. That's great that you can OHKO, but that is IF you have a catcher. I would think that you'd need tool scrapper in this deck.

The effect is on the defending Pokémon. Otherwise it wouldn't stop the damage on that Pokémon right ;) Check the ruling, it has been the same a long time. (For example feint attack and card that negate Benched damage done to other Pokémon).

Esa, no offense meant to you personally, but this deck and article are just bad. It seems like you have so many fans that will just kind of take everything you post for granted just because it's you, because anyone who can think for themselves realizes how many problems exist within your writing and your deck lists.

I could point out each and every problem I have with your article, but last time I did that you did not respond.

None taken! I must admit that I failed completely, because I missed the fact that Victini EX can't attach to Sigilyph. However, as I spent hours of play testing and writing this article, I'm just happy that I got the article out.

The only reason why I made a deck about Latias EX was, because so many people wanted me to make an article of it. However, as I want to be honest with everyone, I think I made it clear enough that this deck by no means is a competitive one and shouldn't be considered as such. I failed doing the article, if it was misleading by any means. But it's a fun deck for anyone not taking Battle Roads too seriously. I would play it in the Battle Roads, if I were to go to one!

And writing articles before my Nationals is always difficult, because I don't want to just go revealing what I'm going to play at Nationals, so I can't really make articles out of metagame decks. And I see no problem with making creative rogue articles, even though the decks don't work, because in the end my blog is an epitome of netdecking thanks to The Decklist Out and me giving my tournament-winning lists away. Creativity is the one thing that we are missing in the current Pokémon TCG and articles like this are designed to be tought-provoking, not the ordinary type "hey, here's a good decklist, copy here!" -article.

And sorry for not commenting to your earlier critique (whichever article it was). I try to answer every comment I get, but sometimes I just don't simply have the time / energy to do it.

Esa, i dont know why you've been receiving so much criticism. To me your writing style is just the same. Please dont be discouraged and continue to write articles on rogue decks once in a while. A few of my friends and i check the deck out almost daily to read your stuff. And maybe u dont care but reading your articles for the past few years has made my brother and i much better players. Im not saying that we should praise you all the time and think everything you say is right, i just believe that you have been doing a wonderful job for the past few years and i will continue to read the deck out for as long as it lasts. Thanks

I really like all ur posts, but in this article ur analisys of the matchs are also disturbed. The deck is so interesting, but think more about the match ups.And I agree with u, this metagame is so close, and the creativity died.

Having played a similar deck for fun I have to say that the plasma match is pretty terrible. About the only way to fix it would be to include enhanced hammers to try and slow them down (and even then that really doesn't work).

However depending on the build of Blastoise, and Darkrai the games can easily swing your way. Also Big basics with Garbo aren't that bad (mostly comes down to who has catchers when).

However the deck feels mostly like a slightly bigger Quad Gliph, and it doesn't feel like Latias really adds much to the deck.